Parallels
by Ayla Pascal
Summary: Harry's worst nightmare is losing his family. Harry/Draco


Author Notes:Thank you to emerald_dragon8 for the awesomely quick beta. Originally written for the hd_worldcup 2009.

-*-

Harry's worst nightmare is losing his family. Every night, after he tucks James in, and crawls into bed next to Ginny, he's thankful for his life. Ginny always turns to him with the same bright smile that he's always loved, and Harry feels like his world is complete.

Draco's worst nightmare is happening _right now_. His father's in prison again and he's practically a pariah in the wizarding world. He's unmarried and all his friends are either in Azkaban or dead. It took him six months to get a job interview at the Ministry, and it was for a position he didn't even want. He doesn't think it can get much worse than this, but Draco knows better than to tempt fate.

-*-

When Albus is born, Harry feels like his family is almost complete. Ginny smiles at him tiredly from the hospital bed. Her face is red and sweaty from childbirth, but to Harry she's never looked more beautiful.

When Scorpius is born, Draco isn't even there. Astoria wrinkles her nose at the smell and hands the baby to her mother-in-law. Narcissa coos over the baby and takes him away.

A letter arrives by owl that afternoon.

_Sorry sweetheart. There were important things I needed to attend to at the Ministry._

Astoria wonders what could be so terribly important to keep a father away from the birth of his firstborn son. A single tear trickles down her face and she wipes it away. Draco had seemed so happy when she had gotten pregnant. She was relatively unenthused, but she had gotten caught up in his excitement.

She worries her bottom lip and wonders where her husband is.

-*-

Albus's fifth birthday is filled with balloons and screaming children. Harry lifts Albus up onto his shoulders and gives him a ride around the house. Ginny watches from the doorway, cake in hand, and smiles.

Scorpius spends his fifth birthday indoors waiting for his father. Draco arrives home after midnight to see his wife and son curled up on the couch.

"I'm sorry, Scorpius," Draco says gently and carries his son to bed.

-*-

After Lily goes to Hogwarts, Harry feels that the house is empty. He misses the squeals of Lily when she slides down the banister. He misses James's cheerful laugh. He especially misses Albus, the little boy's serious expression and the way he always seems to know what Harry is thinking.

"Maybe we should have more children," he says half-jokingly to Ginny one evening.

She freezes. "Why?" Her tone is sharp.

"I miss them."

Ginny comes over and to Harry's surprise, she sits on his lap. He can't remember the last time she did this. Perhaps it was in the first few years of their marriage before they had kids. Her arms entwine around his neck. "I miss having you all to myself," she murmurs into his ear.

-*-

It's a difficult decision but after Scorpius's first year at Hogwarts, Draco comes home and announces that he's quit his job at the Ministry. "I should have done it sooner," he admits to Astoria.

She gives him a tentative smile.

-*-

Harry thinks his children are happy at Hogwarts. James comes home every holidays with piles of presents. The house is always full of his laughing friends.

Harry knows Lily always winds him around her little finger with her impish little grin. Out of all his children, she's always gotten the most extravagant gifts. She comes home chattering about the packages her classmates have gotten. "Mummy," she says, turning bright eyes towards Ginny, "I'd like you to send me cake every week as well."

The only one Harry's not sure about is Albus.

-*-

Draco knows Scorpius is happy at Hogwarts. He watches his son every day from the High Table and is glad when he sees Scorpius has friends from all four houses. Scorpius seems both popular and friendly.

He isn't quite sure about Potter's son Albus, though. Draco has stopped the boy a few times in the corridors to ask him how he's doing. Draco doesn't recognise it at first, but eventually he notices how Albus always skilfully steps around the question and avoids human contact.

Draco thinks that he just might be worried about Harry Potter's kid.

-*-

The first time Harry discovers a bruise on Albus's arm, he dismisses it as a normal teenage accident.

The second time, Harry frowns and asks Albus.

"I fell over," Albus says quietly and Harry believes him.

-*-

Harry's surprised when he sees Draco Malfoy standing on his front porch. Malfoy is immaculately clad in teacher's robes and wearing a concerned expression. "May I come in?"

Harry hesitates and then nods.

"I'm concerned about Albus," Malfoy begins abruptly.

Ginny joins her husband on the couch and places her hand on Harry's knee. "I don't understand," she says stiffly. "He's always done well in his classes."

"You misunderstand me," Malfoy says, holding up a hand. "Your son is an exceptional student. Top in several classes, including mine. Yet, he doesn't seem to have many friends. He seems scared of something."

"What are you trying to say?" Harry demands. There's something accusatory about the other man's tone of voice.

"I've seen similar behaviour in children who have been abused…"

Malfoy isn't able to finish before Ginny's on her feet, wand in hand. Her voice trembles and veins stand out in her neck. "Get out!"

-*-

The third time, Harry walks in on Albus accidentally while the boy's taking a shower. After a mumbled apology, Harry's about to leave when he suddenly sees the boy naked for the first time in years.

Albus's body is a mottled patchwork of bruises and scars. Most of the scars look months old, but the bruises look fresh. Harry notices that most of the marks would normally be hidden by his clothing.

Albus grabs a towel and wraps it around his waist. "It's the kids at Hogwarts," he says quickly. "They're a bit rough when we play Quidditch."

"Like hell!" Harry snaps. He's played Quidditch for years, less so now that he's the head of the Auror Office, but he still knows what Quidditch bruises look like.

-*-

That night, Harry carefully broaches the topic with Ginny. He expects her to be furious, to wonder who was doing this to their child. Instead, she looks almost impatient.

"You had it easy at Hogwarts, Harry," she tells him. "Albus is shy. He's probably getting bullied by the other children. We need to tell him to stand up for himself."

Harry feels a twinge of irritation and then, a horrifying thought crosses his mind. He brushes it away.

Ginny couldn't have done something like that. Not to their children.

-*-

Draco asks his son to watch out for Albus. He knows they're in different houses, but he trusts Scorpius to tell him if anything's wrong. And deep down, Draco knows that something is terribly, terribly wrong.

Scorpius reports back a few days later that as far as he knows Albus has no friends, but nobody is picking on him either. "I feel sorry for him. It can't be easy to be the child of Harry Potter," Scorpius says.

Draco smiles faintly. "I'm sure it isn't easy being the child of Draco Malfoy either."

-*-

Draco is surprised to see Harry Potter turn up at Hogwarts. The arrival causes a flurry of children running up to Potter to hand him their textbooks and any other bits of paper they could find, so that Potter could autograph them.

After ten minutes, Draco pushes through the crowd and rescues Potter.

-*-

Harry is surprised at how austere Malfoy's office is. Now that he's here, Harry isn't sure that it was such a good idea. His fears are groundless. He knows they must be.

"You're here about Albus," Malfoy says bluntly.

Before Harry can stop himself, the entire story comes tumbling out. "I'm so worried," he finishes. "Ginny says that Albus is just being bullied at school. I thought I'd come here…"

"He's not," Malfoy says. "I had Scorpius follow him around for a few days. Scorpius says people barely go near Albus. He's not liked, but nobody bullies him either."

Harry bites his lip. He doesn't want to say this but he knows he has to. "What if Scorpius…"

Malfoy barely reacts. He simply stares at Harry. "My son is not a bully."

Harry isn't sure why, but he believes him.

-*-

That night, Draco goes home to Astoria who hands him a cup of earl grey tea.

"You look worried," she comments.

"It's nothing," Draco replies and hopes that he's right.

They head off to their separate bedrooms and Draco is glad. He knows his marriage isn't the best in the world. His job at the Ministry during the earlier years ruined the only chance of salvaging the union. Yet, he knows without a doubt that Astoria loves their son and would never do anything to harm him. He knows this with as much certainty as he knows that their marriage will end as soon as they feel Scorpius is old enough to handle the news.

Draco suspects that most men would not envy his position. He suspects most men would consider Potter's life to be perfect.

_Most men would be wrong_, he thinks as he crawls into bed.

-*-

When Harry confronts his wife, she turns around slowly and gives him a piercing glare. Her red hair is still wet from her morning shower and glistening drops hit her shoulders. She's still a beautiful woman but Harry doesn't notice.

"I have never, ever, ever," she punctuates the air with her wand in emphasis, "laid a hand or a wand or _anything_ on our son."

Before Harry can reply, Ginny has grabbed a bag and is out the door.

-*-

When Albus is in his fifth year at Hogwarts, Harry Potter begins divorce proceedings against his wife. He tries to keep it quiet and out of the papers but it's difficult with Ginny out there talking to the press, citing years of neglect.

"He loved the children. He really did," she says, sniffling into a handkerchief. "But I was never sure whether he loved me."

Harry continues to insist that the divorce was due to mutual incompatibility. "Don't be ridiculous," he snaps at a reporter who insinuates that spousal abuse may have been a contributing factor.

-*-

Harry finds himself spending more and more of his spare time at Hogwarts in Draco's office. There's something comfortable about being back at Hogwarts. He's even gotten into the habit of calling Draco by his first name.

"It's over now," Harry says quietly and accepts the glass of cognac Draco hands him. "The Wizengamot has approved my application in a private session."

"Are you sure that you did the right thing?"

Harry raised an eyebrow.

"In keeping all this private," Draco adds quickly. "She still has visitation rights, doesn't she?"

Harry nods. "Supervised visitation rights," he amends. "I'm still not sure that it was…" he trails off. "But Albus seems happier nowadays. He's made a few friends. A few days ago, I took all the kids to a Muggle swimming pool. All his bruises have healed."

"Sounds to me," Draco says dryly, "that there really isn't much doubt about the whole matter. You're still willing to have that harpy near your children?"

Harry shrugs. He's been thinking about the same matter for weeks. "She loves the children," he says slowly, "I know she does. I think it'll be better this way. Less sordid anyway."

There's a small smile on Draco's lips that Harry isn't quite able to identify but it sends a shiver down his spine. "Do you really spend so much time trying to keep yourself out of the papers?"

Harry isn't quite sure what the other man means.

-*-

Harry always thought that he wanted the kind of life with two point four children, a wife and a white picket fence. And he did have that life, but somewhere along the way, when that life had begun to fall apart, Harry began to realise, that perhaps, just perhaps, he wanted something else altogether.

As he watches Draco furrow his brow and twirl his quill in his fingers, Harry feels a curious mix of warmth and apprehension. "Do you want some help with that?" he asks, coming up behind Draco.

Draco looks startled. "I'm fine," he says.

Suddenly, Harry feels uncomfortable in the small room. It's silly, he knows it. He's been coming here for months, but only now it seems like it's too small for both of them. Perhaps it has something to do with the heat in Draco's gaze or the hammering of his own heart.

"I have to go home," Harry says abruptly.

-*-

Harry never thought he would ever be kissing another man. He especially didn't think he would ever be kissing Draco Malfoy. Yet, as he feels Draco's warm lips pressed against his own, the telltale feeling of the other man's cock against his own hip, Harry realises that perhaps, this is what has been missing from his life.

Draco never thought he would be kissing another man. His father, and indeed all the Malfoy ancestors, would probably be having a fit right now if they were still alive.

Draco shrugs and leans deeper into the kiss.

-*-

When Draco was younger, he thought he would be a Death Eater just like his father. Later on, he thought he would spend his entire career doing a job that he couldn't even talk about. He always believed that he wasn't made for happiness.

"That was fantastic," Scorpius says, his eyes shining. Draco sees him catch up to Albus who was walking in front. "We should come to the Muggle cinemas more often!"

Albus looks cheerful. Draco sees see the other two of Harry's brood lagging behind arguing about the movie.

Harry comes up behind him and puts a hand on Draco's arm. "So how did you like it?"

Draco smiles and suddenly realises that perhaps _this_ is happiness.

-fin


End file.
